Mudende community with officials from RBC, WHO and Rwanda Ngo Forum On Aids And Health Promotion
Through persistent door-to-door sensitisation, the Mudende sector has managed to reduce cases of intestinal worms among children and adults.
In its National Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Strategic Plan, Rwanda plans to eliminate intestinal worms, the most common NTDs in Rwanda affecting 46.1 percent of adults above 16 years, 38.7 per cent for ages 5-15 years, and 32.2 per cent for ages 1-4 years.
The worms (Ascaris, ancylostoma, trichuriasis trichiura) are caused by swallowing infested foods and fruits and drinking contaminated water.
If not immediately treated, worms affect the growth of children and women leading to malnutrition and anaemia, in particular.
This was the case for many years in Mudende and the number of cases of children with swollen stomachs, malnourished, anaemic, and suffering from diarrhoea.
From 2020-2023, these health concerns compelled Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) to conduct a survey that discovered that the Irish potatoes and onion grower community used human solid wastes for farm fertilizers.
Scientifically, intestinal worms that come from human solid wastes can spend up to five years inside the ground.
“We used human stool fertilisers because it was cheaper and faster in fertilizing our fields and everyone used them,” said Simon Renzaho, a farmer said.
Simon Renzaho
According to local officials, the stool fertilizers were bought at about Rwf5,000 and the community had a dealer who purchased the product for sale.
Renzaho said that the human stool fertiliser was a good business around the area until they realized many children and adults developing swollen stomachs.
“Although human waste fertilisers were cheap, our harvests reduced in two seasons. An hectare of Irish potatoes would produce 35 sacks in the first harvest but in the next one you would get 10 sacks,” Renzaho said.
Health authorities embarked on medicating residents and mobilising them against using human stool fertilisers that were affecting their health and the quantity of harvest.
Elina Muzayire, a community health worker, says that government support especially capacity building and disease knowledge have enabled them to eliminate intestinal worms in the area.
“We did door-to-door mobilization, showing residents the dangers of being exposed to human stool and the residents understood it,” Muzayire explained.
Intestinal worms reduced from 91 to 9 per cent cases.
Valentina Mukaremera, the Director of Mudende Health Center, told journalists that the number of worms patients has reduced from 70 persons per month to 10 persons.
Mukaremera made a call for concerned authorities and partners to increase access to clean water in the area to help do away with worms among the population.
“Access to clean has been one of the causes of infections and a concern which we have raised and taken into consideration by the district. We are hopeful that very soon the community will have a clean water supply,” She said.
Nathan Hitiyaremye
Nathan Hitiyaremye, an official of the NTDs Program at RBC says that using stool as fertilizers is a health problem that no longer poses a danger to the community, however, the need to eliminate intestinal worms remains a concern in other districts where best practices in hygiene and using clean water exist.
Dr. Jules Mugabo Semahore, the Head of Malaria and NTDs at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Rwanda said that the Mudende story is a good example of success in their commitment to supporting Rwanda to end NTDs and noted that more de-worming tablets will be donated annually.
Dr. Jules Mugabo Semahore
